My favorite scene is when he punched the dude in the bar. It was such an alpha male moment for him, and that punch was so fast! It made me all soft and gushy on the inside, alot more than the icky, icky graveyard scene.

And yes, I also like that moment when he and his little bro are surfing on the garbage cans.

But the appearance of his bro begs the question as to what extent all of this is produced by and in his imagination, as part of post-traumatic stress disorder. Did some research on PTSD to write the Jake / Mikey chapter, and discovered "seeing" the dead person is not out of the question. What brings into question whether Jake's Mikey dream is just a dream or actual contact with the dead is Jake's visionary status, while in the movie the ambiguity is achieved by the appearance of the brother - leaving the audience to wonder whether they are seeing the ghost through Charlie's eyes, or whether it is objectively there (since no one else sees it, you really begin to wonder.)

There's no evidence to suggest Charlie is a visionary - until Tess, and that's when the plot starts to lose cohesion.

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become. CS Lewis.